Bang! Pow! Biff! Whap! Those are some awesome onomatopoeias that can certainly be applied to punches. Especially when they come from Batman. Today though, we're not here for Batman biffs, but instead to talk about Punch and the Bareknuckle Pita. Punch has been making cigars since 1840 and is one of the oldest cigar names in the business. However, the jester character that is used as the mascot is much older. The character is inspired from a British puppet show called Punch and Judy that first appeared in 1662. So all those Punch bobble-heads that are nodding across the globe are sort of like 400 year old relics. Kind of cool! Fast forward to today and we take a look at the Punch Bareknuckle Pita.
The Deets
Cigar: Punch Bareknuckle Pita
Origin: Danlí, Honduras
Factory: General Cigar
Size: 6 x 50
Wrapper: Ecuadorian Habano Sun-Grown
Binder: Undisclosed
Filler: Honduras, Nicaragua
Appearance 8.5/10
The overall appearance gave me the impression of a jacked-up farm truck that was freshly washed and waxed. It had elements that were purdy, but you could still tell it's a beat-on farm truck. Color tones were nice, wrapper was sun-grown thick, great texture, all oiled up, and has some positive marks. Some things I didn't care for, like the small cap, loose band, bubbled seam lines, less than uniform profile, and a vein I would have liked to see aged out a bit more. For a smoke at its price point though, not too shabby.
Draw 8/10
I started this one off with a punch (no pun intended) and it was acceptable. Approaching the halfway mark I decided to give it a chop in lieu of a punch. That helped, but I would have preferred to use less pull.
Burn/Construction 7/10
I was impressed with the solid, white ash from the cigar, but man was the burn line simply awful. I had to breath fire all over it like a dragon rider from Game of Thrones. Dragons are cool. Blasting my cigar over and over isn't.
Taste 6/10
1/3 - The cigar comes out swingin' hard with bold & tangy natural tobacco up front. The retro is that of dusty wagon wheel that ran over spilled honey with a dry finish. The bareknuckle simmers down after a short while, but remains a simple smoke of natural tobacco and mildly sweet wood.
2/3 - Aside from the introduction of leather and a dash of cayenne pepper, I struggled to find additional notes or complexity. At this point the finish is not quite as dry as before and allows some of the tasting notes to stick around for a sec.
3/3 - Some gnarly bitters arrive that resemble grapefruit and brings with it some scorched earth. Things bombed pretty hard here and I couldn't bring myself to finish it.
Overall 7.4/10
Perhaps I'll be skewered for my analysis by those who love it, but I couldn't get down with this one. To be fair, this was just 1 sample and maybe I got a dud. That said though, if I end up smoking it again, it'll be on the free.
**Number of cigars smoked for the review: 1
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